Solicitor asking for more money!!

Tillyflop2

I completed a house sale and purchase last August. The conveyancing costs were done under a fixed fee. All costs were taken out of proceeds and the balance forwarded to my account, by the solicitors.
I have my new house deeds. Now nine months later I have receive two letters, the second threatening "penalties" if I don't pay £82 which they say is a balance "due from me because of a shortfall on the sale matter and funds were transferred from the proposed purchase to enable the sale to finalise." quote.
This sounds like b. S. To me, nothing was mentioned at the time about this.
Help please!

george4064

Write back to the solicitor informing you were not initially quoted for this fee and therefore will not be paying it.


Make sure you double check the T&Cs you agreed to with the solicitor when you appointed them.

Exodi

Well firstly I wouldn't ignore it - after all, I couldn't think of a company more equipped to take legal action.

What you've said sounds quite vague. You should have received a completion statement outlining all the costs at the time - presumably this all added up?

Ask them to clarify what this shortfall is exactly.

I wouldn't automatically put your back up. If there is a justified reason for this cost, they've done you quite a favour completing regardless!

Comms69

They have 6 years to chase outstanding money, so I wouldn't rely on it being last year as a defence.

Exodi

george4064 wrote: »

Write back to the solicitor informing you were not initially quoted for this fee and therefore will not be paying it.

OP isn't even sure what the fee is for yet!

I'd imagine it's likely they'll respond "well that's our costs for redeeming the HTB ISA, this would not have been included in our standard quotation because it's not a standard requirement."

There's of course the question of why it may have been omitted from the completion statement, or not chased for several months, but that doesn't automatically mean the OP doesn't owe it.

davidmcn

OP, you probably do owe the money, but they ought to be explaining to you what it's for (if they haven't already). Statements issued before completion can only an estimate as precise disbursements, redemption figures etc often aren't yet known, so there will often be a balance payable by (or to) you which can only be ascertained after completion.

AdrianC

You sold property A
You bought property B
Their fees were taken from the balance disbursed to you

So B was bought outright from the proceeds of the sale of A, with equity left over after any charges on A were satisfied?

Tillyflop2

Correct that's exactly what happened. Now they say they need this money to "close the file"

AdrianC

And have they shown their workings?

Have you asked them to? An error in calculating the amounts would be perfectly valid for them to chase.

Tillyflop2

I'm at the very beginning of challenging this, am going to write my initial letter asking for a breakdown and explanation. The "reason" they gave on my op sounds invalid, that they borrowed funds out of the sale to complete the purchase. Without my knowledge or agreeing to it.

Exodi

Tillyflop2 wrote: »

I'm at the very beginning of challenging this, am going to write my initial letter asking for a breakdown and explanation. The "reason" they gave on my op sounds invalid, that they borrowed funds out of the sale to complete the purchase. Without my knowledge or agreeing to it.

I'm imagine you'd have been far happier to be called whilst waiting outside the estate agent in the morning asking for more money? Or perhaps it would have been preferential to not complete so you can dispute the fees?

Some people pick the strangest fights.

Wait until you at least know what the fees are for before you start frothing at the mouth over them, jeez.